The best trap dye I have ever used, and I have used most of them, is the inner bark of red oak.
When I was a boy, and we were cutting firewood, the bark of every red oak we cut was stripped and dried for trap dye.
Most of my life I have heated with wood and continued the process.
Up until 15 years ago, or so, there were a couple of trapping supply dealers still selling the inner bark of red oak.
I'm not suggesting that you go cut red oaks for dye, but if you cut some for firewood or
for splitting roof boards (the uppies call them shakes, but I never heard that word until the
uppie era, utilize the bark as trap dye.
Another good trap dye was the bark of the American Chestnut which is gone now. But in the
East Tenessee and Western North Carolina mountians, when chestnut was being logged,
it was the basis of a huge tan bark industry.
Adios,
45/70,
RKBA!!!

Talk about coincidental -- Where I'm from, stag horn sumac is a low growing "trash" tree. They grow like weeds. Cut them down, and they grow back like weeds. Same type of resource in different parts of the country.

-- Hal

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